A petition calling on the City of Vancouver to get its bike safety act together has gained more than 1,000 signatures, just as the topic arrives at city council.
When Adam Hawk arrived in Vancouver 16 years ago, he says it was a great place to ride his bike. But since then, he says he has watched Vancouver city council slowly chip away at removing existing cycling infrastructure.
“We’ve actually had active removal of bike infrastructure. We had the Stanley Park bike lane removed and the city spent $400,000 of the permanent cycling infrastructure budget to remove that lane,” he said. “We’re actually moving backwards.”
In March, the cyclist and father decided to launch a change.org petition that asks the city’s general manager of engineering to improve the safety of bike routes in Vancouver and follow guidelines adopted by the city in 2017.
Specifically, he says the petition asks for three things. The first is to install more modal filters along local bikeways, which would divert motor vehicles away from routes designated for active modes of transport. The filters can come in the form of planters, barriers, gardens, plazas, fountain, posts, etc.
“(It’s a) way to get cars off the bikeway and go on to a regular street so there’s less conflict between vehicles and people, but not removing cars from the street so locals can still get to their homes,” he said. “We’re not blocking cars from being on these roads. We just don’t want cars travelling on these roads for long stretches of time.”
Hawk says it’s important to note the petition isn’t asking the city to add new bike lanes, or add bike lanes to streets where they don’t already exist.
The second major ask of the petition is to prevent cars from turning onto local bikeways from major roads. For example, Hawk says a lot of cars may turn onto the Ontario Street bikeway from Broadway during rush hour to try and skirt around the congestion.
However, this puts the dozens of cyclists out at rush hour in danger of an increased risk of collision with cars.
Finally, Hawk says the petition is asking the city is to remove some parking on local bikeways that are steep and narrow. He says Heather Street around W 20 Avenue to W 24 Avenue is a good example of a bikeway with these characteristics.
“If you’re going downhill on a bike, you might be hitting 35 kilometres an hour. If there’s a car on the road and somebody happens to open a car door, you’re done. You’re squashed,” he said.
As a father to a nine-year-old, Hawk says there are many bikeways in the city that he simply doesn’t feel comfortable letting his child ride their bike on because of their width, busyness, or lack of modal filters. Plus, as city council passes more motions encouraging people to use e-bikes and electric scooters around Vancouver, these are changes that will make a huge difference in ensuring active transport users’ safety, he explains.
“If we want to be a green city, if we want to move forward progressively, these are changes that should be made,” Hawk said.
Motion asks Vancouver to review bike safety measures
City council is set to vote on a motion Wednesday concerning Vancouver’s commitment to safer, slower streets.
The motion, brought forward by councillor Pete Fry, asks the city to look into the benefits of reducing speed limits to 30 kilometres per hour in residential areas on local streets without a centre line, as well as present a strategy for implementing more modal filters on local bikeways. It also asks council to look into funding options and partnerships with groups like ICBC or TransLink, to carry out these actions.
It will be voted on by Vancouver city council Wednesday afternoon.
Hawk says the simple act of lowering speed limits, as Fry’s motion proposes, could make a huge difference.
According to the Canadian Association of Road Safety Professionals, a pedestrian’s survival rate is 90 per cent if they’re struck by a vehicle going 30 kilometres per hour, but that number is reduced to 20 per cent if the vehicle is going 50 kilometres per hour.
“Those are significant numbers,” Hawk said.
Since Hawk launched his petition on March 22, he says it has gained more than 1,000 signatures through word of mouth.
“We’ve got over 1,100 people signing this petition just organically, because they feel this is something that’s missing,” he said. “But I think that’s a testament that people are interested in this issue and we do need to take action on this.”
He adds the changes outlined in the petition are not exorbitantly expensive for the city to implement, and to remain realistic, the petition asks for the changes to be put into place by 2028.
“We’re not asking for the moon. But you know, we recognize that it does take time. So we want to give the city a few years to do it.”